The Dragon Wilds
by mrentity
Summary: This story is my own, but EON gave me the idea to use dragons. Enjoy! DISCLAIMER: I do not own Eon, nor do I own any of the characters contained within Eon or Eona. Warning: It's a bit gay.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: My Life Starts Getting Very Strange

Okay, the story I'm about to tell you may seem unbelievable. You may not _want _to believe me. But you need to. Because if people start to ignore our struggle, that makes it hard for us, the good guys. See, if someone does not believe in us, in any of this, then we cannot reveal ourselves to fight in their presence. And that means that _they _win. Because they don't have these rules. So please, for your sake, and ours, try to keep an open mind, at least.

*scene break*

I've never really believed in the supernatural. I mean, sure, there are things that can't be explained, but ghosts, goblins and All powerful dragons? Forget it.

That all changed last month, with a field trip to Yellowstone National Park.

Let me introduce myself first. Hi, I'm Micheal, but most people call me Mike. Well, the people who like me anyway. Which isn't a big group of people. Most people refer to me by various vulgar names. All my life I've been a loner, me and my friend Dakota, a really big guy whose really a big softie, even though he's the star of the football team. He's big and burly, built like a bear. He sure eats like one. He's got really messy black hair, and his eyes are multicolor. One is silver, and the other is a greenish color. He's not the only weird one.

I was born with yellow eyes. I'm shorter than Kota, although I'm still well-built. I've got shoulder-length brown hair. Not much else is special about me. I've lived with Kota most of my life. I never knew my parents. My life, in short, was pretty crappy.

Until it got interesting. Cue story start!

*scene break*

The bus was cramped and hot. There were only two buses at Forest Pine High, and just over a hundred kids. So, we were all scrunched like sardines in a can. I was being forced to sit on Kota's lap (not complaining), and dying of heat. So, when the bus rumbled to a stop near the geysers, I was one of the first people off that bus.

The place was sweltering hot. The pavement in the tiny parking area was nearly melting my sneakers as I stopped to look around.

We were surrounded on three sides by trees, thriving despite the heat and dry, rocky ground. The narrow road snaked off into the woods behind us, while in front of us, a large extinct geyser took up most of my view.

We were here on a study trip for Earth Science class, and me and Kota were partners, naturally. The assignment was to find some interesting geologic formations, and sketch them. I'm a crappy artist, but my eyes don't miss much. Kota is not very observant, but damn! That boy can draw! So we made a pretty good team.

Almost right away, I spotted an old steam vent in the rock near the forest edge. I directed Kota's attention to it and we went to get a closer look.

Immediately after we reached the spot, Kurtis, the class bully, showed up with his lackeys, Trey and Sean. They loved picking on Kota, because he hates fighting and wouldn't kill a fly to save his life. And, on top of that, it was like Trey had his own personal vendetta when it came to tormenting me, which he did quite often.

Kurtis launched immediately into the insults. "Well, well, what do we have here? It's the baby and his nanny! Aww, guys look, the baby drew a picture!" Kota had, in fact, finished his sketch of the vent, and it was actually a good rendering. The bully stepped forward, and quickly tore the page from Kota's sketchbook. He stepped back and laughed, waving the page around.

"Well, looks like my homework's done! See ya, losers!" Kurtis turned to walk away. That was it. I had been putting up with these creeps all year, knowing that, if it escalated into a fight, I would get my butt kicked. But this time, they were picking on my friend, and from the resigned look on Kota's face, this wasn't the first time. I couldn't lie down anymore, and I snapped.

"Hey!" I said. "Give that back! You have no right to take that!" Kurtis froze, and slowly turned to face me. The ground started to rumble quietly.

"What was that, pipsqueak?" He said. His friends started to snigger. "You want to make something of it?" He cracked his knuckles ominously. Kota chose that moment to speak up. "Mikey?" he said.

"Not now, Kota." I hissed. I walked up to the edge of the steam vent. "Yeah, I want to make something of it! That's not yours, now give it back!" As I spoke, the rumbling sound grew louder, now accompanied by a low hissing. I looked down, and saw that, to my amazement steam was pouring from the vent.

Kurtis took advantage of my distraction to rush me, his fist racing toward my face. I looked up just in time to see that fist slam into the wall of flesh that was Kota's open palm. I looked at his faced and saw that his normally gentle expression was twisted with barely suppressed rage and violence.

"Don't. Touch. Him." I was shocked at the vehemence contained within his voice. But while his attention was held by Kurtis, Trey and Sean struck.

Or at least, they tried too. They were intercepted by twin black blurs that bore them to the ground, making savage snarling noises. The ground was now starting to shake.

A third black blur leapt at Kota and Kurtis. I screamed a warning, and Kota turned toward me, alarm on his face, letting go of Kurtis as he did so.

That turn saved his life.

He moved to the side as he turn, so that the blur hit Kurtis instead. Kurtis fell back, screaming in pain and fear. Then, his screams abruptly cut off as I finally got a clear look at the black things.

What I saw made my blood freeze.

Standing over what had recently been a human boy was a huge, shaggy, pitch-black wolf. It's fangs were like knives, and it's eyes, oh god it's _eyes…_

Those burnin, hate-filled crimson orbs stared straight at me. My heart leapt in my throat as the shaggy hulk stalked toward me. The rumbling dulled to a throb.

Dimly, I saw another huge figure enter my field of vision, planting itself in front of me protectively. As the huge wolf leapt, murder in it's horrible eyes, I saw the face of the figure guarding me.

It was Dakota.

Rage overcame fear as my emotions peaked, and the throb became a dull roar as the steam vent erupted.

Boy and beast were torn apart as a wall of liquid fire stormed upward with a blast of heat so powerful that the nearby rock flashed to liquid state immediately. Time slowed down, and I could _feel _the heat wave approaching me and Kota. I knew, somehow, that if the blast wave struck, Kota would die. That was not going to happen, not while I was still breathing. I forced my will towards the fire, willing it to stop.

Imagine my shock when it did.

The eruption stopped. And with it, the energy left my body like falling water. I collapsed, exhausted. I saw Kota lying next to me, badly burned. He wasn't breathing.

Naturally, I panicked. And that was before I heard the growling.

It took all I had to turn my head and look. One of the big wolves was lying on it's side, blackened to the bone and partially melted, obviously dead. Next to it, a badly mauled Kurtis drew ragged, rasping breaths. But, there were two more wolves.

They stood over the obviously dead bodies of Trey and Sean, staring at me and snarling. Then, as if my life wasn't weird enough, one of them spoke.

"Kill the hatchlingssssss!" It's voice was tortured and raspy, and it's breath was horrible! In fact, a low fog seemed to be rising all around us, and for all I knew, his breath was causing it. I knew there was nothing I could do, and despair gripped me.

Then, I heard Kota draw breath. That sound, that one pitiful sound, inspired such a rush of raw emotion. I would _not _stand by while he was murdered by creepy talking wolves.

I forced myself upright, supporting my weight by sheer willpower alone. Unfortunately, that was about all I could manage. For some odd reason, my body felt completely drained. I had no energy left to fight.

Turns out, I didn't need to.

As I took a few shaky steps towards the two shaggy beasts, the glistening fog reflected a flash of steel as one of them was slashed apart. I leaned back, startled, as the second wolf leapt.

It was intercepted in midair by a gleaming length of silver metal, wielded by a strangely familiar woman. The beast fell back, then leapt again, and a deadly dance began.

I could tell the woman was skilled with a sword, but it looked like she was having trouble with the wolf, and I felt so helpless to aid her. I stepped forward to help anyway.

As I did, the ground started to shake once more…

*end chapter one*


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Power is Incredible

As I stepped forward, determined to help the strange woman, The earth began once more to rumble. Horrible timing.

The rumble distracted the woman, and she lost her footing. The shaggy wolf did not, however, take advantage of this. Instead, it fixed it's le scarlet gaze on Dakota's prostrate form. And it charged.

I panicked. There was nothing I could do. Well, almost nothing. With my strength waning, I threw my self by sheer willpower into the beast's path.

It hit me with the force of a charging elephant. The wolf bore me to the ground, jaws snapping. My eyes squeezed shut, I held it back with severely weakened limbs.

Or so I thought. As I cracked my eyes, I saw my arms lying weakly by my sides. But I could _feel _my hands around the wolf's throat, held in place by one single, burning determination: That thing was not getting anywhere near Kota, while I still drew breath.

There was only one explanation: I was holding the beast with my mind. _That's impossible…_ I thought, then shook it off. Impossible or not, if it was between Kota and that monster, then it was fine by me. I gave a mental shove, and the wolf was pushed back several inches. Still, I knew I couldn't keep this up for much longer. The earth's shaking shuddered to a halt.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the sword lady, surrounded by three more of the monsters. She saw me looking, and screamed out the last thing I thought I'd ever hear: "Do you believe?!"

Almost without direction, my voice responded; "Yes! Please, help him!", motioning toward Kota as I did so. Then I returned my attention to the monster on my chest, my mind getting weaker by the moment.

Then, without warning, there was a flash of light, and an almost deafening roar, and the wolf simply melted away.

Relieved, I looked over to where Kota lay.

Standing around him were three giant wolves.

Crouching over him, wings flared and tail raised defensively, was what I could only describe as a giant white dragon.

The beast was huge, easily twice as large as the bus, with a six-foot-long neck, three meter tail, and two huge, bat-like wings. It's head was roughly triangle shaped, with strange curved horns, great yellow eyes, and a giant maw filled with razor-sharp teeth. It's scales were as white as ice, and it's breath steamed, as if it were the dead of winter.

And it seemed to be protecting Kota.

One of the wolves lunged at him, but the dragon was wicked fast. It's talons became snowy blurs, and the wolf fell, completely disemboweled.

The other two were more cautious. One began to circle the dragon, while the other stood it's ground. This was a big mistake. The insanely long tail snapped like a bullwhip, and the wolf fell backwards, neck twisted at a brutal angle.

The final wolf began to run in circles around the scaly creature, trying to get behind it. It didn't work. The dragon flared its wings, knocking the wolf of balance. Then, it opened it's jaws, and breathed steam at the shaggy wolf, completely obscuring its form.

When the steam cleared, the wolf was frozen solid.

The dragon snorted in satisfaction, and turned it's attention to Kota. It moved its scaly head toward him, mouth agape.

_Oh, hell no!_ I though. Remembering what happened with the wolf, I focused my entire being on pushing those daggered teeth away from my friend.

There was a strong _whoosh,_ and it seemed that the dragons wings were suddenly caught in a mighty gale. With a roar, it was thrown away from Kota onto it's back. It regained its feet with blinding speed, and turned it's gazed to me.

I could have sworn that its eyes were smiling.

The beast crouched, as if to attack, and simply melted away.

Where it had sat, the strange woman was standing, and grinning at me like a madwoman.

That was the last straw. I couldn't handle the shock and exhaustion, and I passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Explanations

My eyes flew open as I regained consciousness. I was in the mouth of a dark cave, with a campfire a few feet away. I was lying on something incredibly soft, and when I started to move, a low voice sounded next to me.

"Hey, he's awake."

I looked up, and relief flooded me. I was leaning against Kota's giant bare chest, and he looked fine, except for a large bandage on his right side. Then I looked around some more.

Standing at the cave mouth was the sword lady from the geyser. The one who had turned into a giant flying lizard. Needless to say, I bolted upright, and nearly soiled myself. I started pointing and babbling nonsense like an insane person.

She just smiled, making no move toward me. Or to turn into a big white dragon and attack me. "Calm down," she said. "Sit, and I will explain. I have already told your friend everything."

I looked to Kota for confirmation, and he grinned and nodded, eyes shining. So I sat next to the campfire, right up next to him, as the woman did the same.

"First, a question. What do you wish to know?" Bad question. My mind, and my mouth started babbling immediately. "Who are you? _What _are you? What were those things? Why did they attack us? What was with the exploding steam vent? Where are we?" I took a deap breath, and took the big plunge. "How did I hold back that wolf and why did I get so tired?"

She just smiled. "I see I have a lot of talking to do, so I will start with who, and what, I am. My name is Zhia, and to put it simply enough, I am a dragon, and so are you two." I gasped at those words, and looked again to Kota, who said "It's true. I've already managed a change, and you shifted several times while you were out." I looked back to Zhia as she started speaking again.

"The dragons have shared this world with humans for thousands of years. However, our numbers are significantly less than the humans'. Even today, with billions of humans on the planet, there are only a few thousand dragons left. This imbalance has always driven us into hiding from the humans.

"Dragon males are usually fiercely territorial, which makes me wonder how you two have lived together all these years. This is why, currently, we are the only dragons within a few hundred miles. We dragons have one major goal: to protect this world from the darkness of the Spirit World."

"The Spirit World?" I asked. Th explanation came from Kota.

"The Spirit World is sort of like our closet; it's dark, nasty and full of evil things. It's constantly trying to send evil spirits here, to add this place to the Spirit World. The dragons always have to fight those things, to keep this world free."

Zhia nodded. "Exactly. Those wolves who attacked you were extremely powerful dark spirits; They were Hunters: spirits bred for the sole reason of hunting, and killing dragons.

"You, like all dragons, have powerful telekinetic abilities. That is, the power to move objects with your minds. That is how you were able to hold the wolf, and throw me." She smiled at this.

"As fore the erupting steam vents, you, Michael, obviously have the power of seismokinesis; the power to create and control various forms of seismic activity, such as earthquakes, geysers, and volcanic eruptions." I laughed at this. "So, you're saying I could shake this cave to pieces right now?" She stared at me, unsmiling. "No, because you have little to no control. However, if your emotions were to peak, at this moment, you could conceivably cause an avalanche.

"Dakota also has a powerful ability." Kota blushed at this. "It's nothing special," he muttered. I looked at him, curious now. "What is it?" He wouldn't meet my eyes. "I can throw big rocks," he sighed. I looked to Zhia for elaboration. She did not disappoint. "Dakota has the ability to retain the physical strength of his dragon in his human form. Due to his dragon's massive size, his strength is quite considerable. Whereas you might be able to melt this mountain with an eruption or cause an avalanche, he would be able to tear it to pieces with his bare hands."

I stared at Kota, amazed. "Just how big is your dragon, Kota?" I asked. He grinned. "That's the fun part. Watch." He got up, stretched. And jumped from the mouth of the cave.

But I didn't have a chance to worry. An instant later, the air compressed with a dull _thud_ that jarred my teeth, and a flash of orange scales obscured the view. Then, Kota backed away, and I got a look at him.

He was _enormous_. Easily four to five times the size of Zhia's dragon, his scales were a bright orange color. His wings were shaped like giant webbed hands. His long tail was thick and muscled, and his chest was completely ripped. The head was big and blocky, with a sort of shell covering his pate. As I watched, he roared loudly and dived into a lake below. It was then that I finally looked at my surroundings.

We were in a medium sized, bowl-shaped valley. I was standing on a wide ledge that overlooked a small lake. The rest of the valley was covered with dense forest, with a large plain at the other end. I could see a herd of animals on the prairie.

"What is this place?" I wondered as Kota burst back into the sky. Next to me, Zhia smiled. "This," she said, "is my home," before shifting and joining Kota in the sky.


End file.
